An average guy capable of discussing TV & film on a higher level but would rather do it from the couch.

Netflix Announces New Season Of Arrested Development is Happening. Will It Suck?

Everyone knows Arrested Development was arguably one of the greatest TV shows of all time when it was on Fox from 2003-2005. But it never got the attention it deserved and was taken away from us after only 3 seasons. That sucked. A couple years ago when Netflix announced it would make the 4th season I’m pretty sure the internet lost it’s mind with excitement but unfortunately it was a total bust. That sucked too. It was completely blah. Not bad enough to taint the reputation of the original three seasons, but pretty bad just the same.

Now they’re taking another crack at it with a 5th season. Nothing has really started yet aside from the contracts for each of the main actors which was a major hurdle. I don’t think Netflix is exactly hurting for income but I can’t imagine this was an easy negotiation to sign everyone. Some of these people are huge now. I found this article from the season 4 announcement regarding how they’d pay the actors and it’s a doozy:

The actor “starring” in the episode is paid $125,000. If he or she appears in more than 90 seconds of an episode (but is not the star), that actor receives $50,000. For less than 90 seconds of airtime in an episode, he or she receives $10,000. Finally, if a clip featuring the actor from a previous episode is used, that actor gets another $1,000.

Not only is that a complex breakdown of payment, it’s also extremely unorthodox and generally pretty cheap. For instance, each of the main actors on Big Bang Theory get roughly $1 million per episode. That article goes on to say the actors agreed to take a heavy pay cut in order to get this done because for a lot of them Arrested Development gave them their start. It was more of a passion project than anything else. This is almost certainly not the case this time and I’m willing to bet Netflix paid a ton to make this happen. Here’s a break down of each actor’s net worth:

Portia De Rossi is currently estimated at $20 million but she’s going through a divorce with Ellen who’s worth $360 million…. They signed a “post nuptial agreement” last year.. whatever the frig that means. That could be the dumbest thing anyone has ever signed in history if it protects Ellen’s bank account. Maybe Portia signed a good deal because she’s going to have to start working again instead of being a stay at home actress. Jason Bateman and Jeffery Tambor were probably the two biggest hurdles in this agreement. They’re both wildly successful and pretty busy. Especially Tambor who stars in that little show called Transparent which the entertainment industry loves- and happens to be on Netflix’s main rival in Amazon Prime. Hopefully all the money is worth it and we get 10+ episodes of classic Bluth moments and new references/gifs to use.

PS how the fuck does Buster/Tony Hale only have $3 million? He has over 100 acting credits over the past 20 years. He has done a TON of shit, mostly bits and voiceovers but still…. that’s a solid career. Oh and he’s a main character on VEEP which is only the funniest show HBO has produced in a decade. Why hasn’t he fired his agent yet? Does he not have an agent? He should get one. This is embarrassing for him.